I created 3D text in PS CS5 using Repousse and then imported that into AE (thanks Chris and Trish!). Import and addition to a comp went perfectly. Animating a camera around the PS 3D layer worked as expected, revealing nice and chunky 3D text from all angles. However, two problems have surfaced.

I tried to pre-comp the PS 3D layers (to build a fake reflection in the pre-comp), and I ended up with a 2.5D layer in the parent comp. I tried changing the expressions in the PS 3D layers to link to an identical controller null in the parent comp, but that didn't work (Operator Error quite possible). When I collapsed transformations on the pre-comp, I got chunky text that wouldn't respond to the parent comp's camera animation (it acted like a 2D layer). In the end, I had to copy the parent comp's camera null keyframes to an identical camera null in the pre-comp. Then I had to turn the pre-comp into a 2D layer. Is there a more elegant solution that I haven't found? It's hard to tweak the camera animation even with ETLAT.

The pre-comp and the PS 3D layers seem to be immune to motion blur no matter what I do. Is motion blur a no-no when using Photoshop Live 3D?

Thanks for the help, Mylenium. Your tip to set up the reflection in PS was a good one. Having all the meshes in one file makes animating much easier.

I had to use a Layer Mask + Gradient to get the light falloff to behave like a reflection, but vertical camera moves in AE would either reveal more of the reflected text or push the main text into the light falloff region as the meshes "moved" into and out of the gradient. Bad news. Ditto for using the Linear Wipe effect in AE. In the end, I went with the Linear Wipe just because it's easier for me to tweak it during the animation.

You can of course always try RSMB or CC Force Motionblur on your pre-comp

You can also use a trick with the Timewarp effect to force motion blur:

"To achieve a result similar to the result of ReelSmart Motion Blur, apply the Timewarp effect, set Speed to 100, enable motion blur within the effect, and use the manual shutter control features to adjust the motion blur."